Our student ePortfolios are hosted by Edublogs.org. I choose this site because it is a dedicated platform for educational blogging, you can read more about them, and why I choose them here.

Below is a cross post from the Edublogs.org blog discussing the issue of Online Student Safety. As I was reading this, while eating my Branflakes this morning, I thought that this post had a really poignant message for our school’s parents and community. So I have decided to use our school website to share it.

What I would like to know from you guys is:

Do you agree with the message?

Are we as a school doing enough to prepare our students as online citizens?

Do you as parents and caregivers feel like you have enough resources/information/confidence to talk to your children about these issues?

Do the parents in our community need support and how can I help?

Please leave me a comment or send email me with your thoughts; though I will also accept a chat over a cup of tea

I have only included part of the post, and you can click here to read the post in its entirety here.

We should talk – what are you doing to ensure student safety online?

It is one of the most important conversations we can have. When student privacy and safety is at stake, we all have an obligation to do our part.

Keeping in mind that laws and policies vary depending on where you are and what age you work with, there are some common sense tips we should all follow.

The discussion below was inspired by comments left by educators on this Edublogger postover the past few weeks.

Too often media creates hysteria about Internet predators leading school districts to respond to parent and teacher concerns by blocking any kind of social networking while failing to highlight the positive aspects achieved when students collaborate online as part of a global community.

While we recognize that online predators pose a threat, about 1% of child abuse and sexual abuse cases, and we certainly do not dismiss the need to teach our students about safety issues, such as “grooming,” we also want all students to learn to use the Internet effectively and ethically.

Our middle school counselors, for instance, report that over 60% of their case load involves handling and defusing cyberbullying and “sexting” issues – mainly from smart phones. Pretty much 100% of the time, the parents are clueless as to how their children are using the Internet.

Digital citizenship should be built into media literacy —media literacy as a must-have skill for the 21st century.

Internet safety is best taught at school and not at home (sorry, parents).

The biggest thing is … you can’t just do one off lessons on cyber safety. Cyber safety is not a separate subject.

Through being heavily involved in blogging, my grade two class has opportunities almost every day to discuss cyber safety issues and appropriate online behaviours in an authenticsetting.

When we’re writing blog posts and comments together, a wide range of issues come up incidentally. The discussions are so rich and purposeful and my students now have an excellent understanding of the do’s and don’ts of internet safety.

Teaching students what can and what shouldn’t be shared online can’t be boiled down to a few lessons.

It is best if the topic is brought up often and in context when working with any web technology.

What do we need to consider?

The reality is that we’ve got to face the questions and concerns raised when students are online head on.

Our world is increasingly connected, and our students need to know how to interact online safely and with some level of privacy. The trouble is that educators, administrators, online web tools, politicians, and parents just aren’t sure what that looks like yet. And for some reason, a consensus decision isn’t likely anytime soon. Either way, we must educate students about the expectations we have of them when they are online and about the digital footprint they leave behind.

We need to educate our students on how to work in a safe online environment.